High-Speed, Slow Tracks

The government should reject the planned Jakarta-Bandung high speed railway megaproject. The Rp80 trillion project is more of a showpiece than public transportation. Given the current uncertain economic condition, the government can ill-afford to do any grandstanding. Such a huge sum of money would be better spent building a 400-kilometer toll road in Sumatra, four ports in Kalimantan or railroads in Papua, Kalimantan and Sulawesi, as well as three dams. The multiplier effect on the people's economy from all of those projects would be far greater than that from the Jakarta-Bandung railway.

Clearly, the 150-kilometer distance from the capital city to Bandung would not allow a 350-kilometer-per-hour 'bullet train' to reach its maximum speed because it would have to stop at four stationsdown from eight stations as originally planned. This would mean the high-speed train would only operate at 'fairly fast' or 'normal' speeds. Moreover, the benefits from such a massive investment are not clear. It would be better to improve and upgrade the existing Jakarta-Bandung line, and to increase the speed of the conventional trains already in service. After all, the Cipularang toll road, which has greatly reduced automobile travel time, has been in operation since 2005.